Results tagged “911”

The man or woman responsible for presiding over the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected plotters of the 9/11 attacks will likely be chosen with the kind of machine that "might have been used to call out bingo numbers in a church fund-raiser," according to the Times. The 20-some active Manhattan federal court judges — as well as a few who are on senior status — will have their names put into a lottery machine to determine who will preside over the high profile case, which could last years, and will likely result in the assignment of around the clock security the rest of the judge's life.

Yesterday, WikiLeaks began posting "half a million US national text pager intercepts," saying, "The archive is a completely objective record of the defining moment of our time. We hope that its entrance into the historical record will lead to a nuanced understanding of how this event led to death, opportunism and war."

Opponents of the Obama administration's plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York City will hold a Dec. 5 rally in front of the federal courthouse to demand that the trials take place elsewhere, according to the Daily News. "This is perhaps the most dangerous decision any President and any attorney general have ever made," said Rep. Pete King (R-Nassau), who publicized the event alongside a new group called 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four other suspected terrorists who will be tried in Manhattan for their involvement in planning the 9/11 attacks will plead not guilty, according to an attorney. Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer representing suspect Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the attacks, but "would explain what happened and why they did it" and share "their assessment of American foreign policy," according to the Post. Unsurprisingly, "their assessment is negative," according to Fenstermaker.

The majority of New Yorkers want to see Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists put to death, according to a study by Marist and the Daily News. If found guilty, 73 percent of locals want Mohammed to be executed, while 67 percent of New Yorkers support the death penalty for the other suspects, the poll reveals.

After 911 operators mistakenly dispatched firefighters to the wrong addresses in response to at least two fatal fires, the NYPD and FDNY announced that they will alter the city's emergency phone-answering system. Police phone operators will still respond to all 911 calls — continuing the so-called "Unified Call Taking System" which was launched in May — but when a caller reports a fire, the operator will electronically transmit the data to the FDNY and an FDNY official will have the chance "to listen in on the emergency fire calls and ask additional questions," according to the Post.

The furor over holding the trials of alleged 9/11 terror plotters in a Manhattan federal court continues to simmer. Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, "I’m not scared of what [terror mastermind] Khalid Sheik Mohammed has to say at trial — and no one else needs to be either."

Yesterday, a federal appeals court panel of three judges upheld the conviction of lawyer Lynne Stewart for smuggling messages from a radical leader to his followers in Egypt. And the panels also thinks a judge should consider increasing her prison time from the 28 month sentence that was already handed down.

While the majority of Americans aren't happy with the plan to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York City, more New Yorkers support the plan than oppose it, according to two new studies. Based on findings from a nationwide phone survey by Rasmussen Reports, 51 percent of Americans think it's a bad idea to host the trials in the city, while 29 percent of respondents favor the proposal to move the suspects from Guantanamo Bay to Lower Manhattan.

A Republican Arizona Congressman who opposes the plan to hold the trials for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in Manhattan asked Mayor Bloomberg how he would feel if his daughter was "kidnapped at school by a terrorist." Though Bloomberg's daughters — Emma, 30, and Georgina, 26 — are well past school age, Rep. John Shadegg raised the question on the House floor on Monday while trashing a decision he described as "political correctness run amok."

A day after voicing his opposition to plans to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York, Gov. David Paterson backtracked from those statements and blamed the press for sensationalizing his remarks. "We don't need to spend a lot of time on this," he said. "The decision is made. That's the president's decision. We're Americans. We will follow the decision and we'll trust the President."

While former mayor Rudy Giuliani continued to blast plans to host the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York City, the Daily Show went after some seemingly hypocritical comments the likely gubernatorial candidate made just three years ago.

Gov. David Paterson followed former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's lead yesterday, when he denounced plans to hold the trial for Kalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York.

Yesterday, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani came out swinging against the Obama administration's decision to try five of the alleged 9/11 plotters, including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, at a NYC federal court, accusing the White House of thinking the "War on Terror is over." But senior White House adviser David Axelrod pointed out that Giuliani previously supported the decision to try 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui in federal criminal court.

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani made the talk show rounds this morning to denounce the Obama administration's decision to try five accused 9/11 plotters—including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—in New York City's federal court. On Fox News Sunday, Giuliani said the White House was "repeating the mistake of history" and had reverted to a "pre-9/11 approach... What the Obama administration is telling us loud and clear is that both in substance and reality, the War on Terror from their point of view is over. [Mohammad] should be tried in a military tribunal. He is a war criminal. This is an act of war."

When firefighters arrived at an apartment on 138th Street on Aug. 18, they were expecting to find a broken water pipe — not a pregnant woman whose water had just broken. In a 911 dispatching gaffe, an operator classified a call about a woman going into labor as a water leak and sent out Ladder Co. 28 "armed with hooks, wrenches and flashlights but no medical gear," the Post reports.

After U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that five of the plotters behind the September 11 attacks—including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—would be tried in federal court in lower Manhattan, the reaction has ranged from the outraged and upset to the relieved. Retired deputy fire chief Jim Riches, whose firefighter son while responding to the World Trade Center's fires, told the NY Times, "Let them come to New York. Let them get on trial. Let’s do it the right way, for all the world to see what they’re like. Let’s go. It’s been too long. Let’s get some justice."

The United States will try September 11 attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as four other 9/11 terror plotters, in New York City. Federal sources say that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will make the announcement today; President Obama didn't confirm the details, but did say from Japan, "I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice."

Firefighters responding to a deadly Woodside fire that killed three and injured four in an illegal basement apartment yesterday could have arrived sooner — had they not been routed to the wrong address first. A 911 operator mistakenly entered a two instead of a five and sent Engine Company 292 and Rescue Company 4 on a "wild goose chase" to 62nd Street instead of 65th Street, a delay that cost firefighters about 2 minutes and 30 seconds, according to the fire union.

NJ State Police released 911 tapes between murdered Chatham, NJ pastor Father Ed Hinds and a 911 dispatcher. Hinds, who was allegedly killed by the church's janitor Jose Feliciano, called 911 from his cellphone; he managed to give his address, but the phone disconnected before the dispatcher could confirm the location. So the dispatcher called back, and on the second attempt, Feliciano answered. The dispatcher asked, "Sir, this is the State Police. You called 911. Do you have an emergency?" and Feliciano responded, "No, we don't. Thank you"—but Hinds' voice is "barely be heard [in the background] saying, 'Yes we do [have an emergency].'''

Coming on the heels of yesterday's report on the questionable conditions and lack of legal access in a little known immigrant jail in the West Village, the federal government has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle the cases of five Muslim immigrants were among hundreds of noncitizens jailed in Brooklyn for months after 9/11 without charges. According to the Times, the plaintiffs — whose names were cleared but were still deported — accepted the payout after seven years of court cases. A larger suit filed by other detainees is ongoing.

In what must be the least surprising news item of the day, the law firm that was planning on hiring Brian Schroeder — the 26-year-old Harvard Law School grad suspected of setting a fire in a chapel containing the remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — has revoked its offer. The firm Sidley Austin recanted on its decision to hire Schroeder, who turned himself in to police after setting a blaze on Saturday morning that destroyed flowers, photos, and other mementos inside Memorial Park on the corner of First Avenue and East 30th Street. According to cops, he set the fire on a drunk dare, but Schroeder's attorney claims the Texas native, who moved to New York to accept the law job, had been drugged.

     

After being greeted by a 21-gun salute, the warship built from World Trade Center steel USS New York is back home. A New Yorker who knows the harbor better than anyone else, not to mention the pain of Sept. 11, guided it into the city. Harbor pilot Neil Keating, whose firefighter brother Paul was killed on Sept. 11, pulled the warship into place this morning. He told the Post, "It's fitting that 7.5 tons of Twin Towers steel were used to make the bow, because that's where the ship takes a pounding and keeps trudging forward through roughs seas. We're like ambassadors when we go on board."

The Harvard Law School grad suspected of setting a fire inside a memorial for unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks claims he was drugged before he torched the shrine. A lawyer representing 26-year-old Brian Schroeder said someone might have "put something in his drink" before the 26-year-old Ivy Leaguer — who moved to New York to accept a job at a law firm — set a blaze that destroyed flowers, notes, photos, and other mementos inside Memorial Park at First Avenue and East 30th Street. In fact, the attorney claims that Schroeder didn't realize he was setting a fire in a 9/11 memorial, "although police sources said he made sure to gather many of the teddy bears left by victims' families to start the fire," according to the Post.

Heads up—Notify NYC reminds us, "There will be a 21-gun salute [today] 11/2/09 at approximately 8 AM from the deck of the USS New York. The ship will be in the Hudson River near the World Trade Center Site in Manhattan. Expect repetitive loud noises." The ship, which is made from steel from the World Trade Center, is in New York City for her commissioning this Saturday; as for today's festivities, here's what the Navy says:

Acting on a dare, a drunk Harvard Law School grad allegedly set fire to a chapel yesterday that houses the remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The perp — identified as 26-year-old Brian Schroeder — broke into Memorial Park near the corner of First Avenue and East 30th Street and set the blaze at around 9 am. The fire did not get to the remains, which are kept in climate-controlled containers awaiting advances in DNA technology that might allow them to be identified, but notes, photos, flowers, and other mementos inside the white-tented sanctuary were either stolen or burned. Schroeder turned himself in to police last night.

One of the confessed masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks, along with four other killers, may be flown from Guantanamo Bay to face death penalty trials in the Big Apple. Yes, we're talking about ex-Al Qaeda "military commander" Khalid Shaikh Mohammed—who admitted last year to being a terrorist "to the bone", said he wished to be a martyr and even played critic to a courtroom sketch artist's drawing of him.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly spoke about the man the federal authorities believe was planning a terrorist attack—and Newsday reports that Kelly confirmed that the plot was apparently focused on the Big Apple, "We believe the target was most likely here in New York City."

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder discussed the alleged terror plot involving suspect Najibullah Zazi, the former Queens/current Denver resident, and others. Holder said it was "one of the most serious terrorist threats to our country since Sept. 11, 2001... This wasn't merely an 'aspirational' plot with no chance of success. This plot was very serious and, had it not been disrupted, it could have resulted in the loss of American lives."

A beloved member of the NYPD passed away: Taz, a 90-pound German shepherd who was the last of the active K-9 dogs who helped search the World Trade Center site after the September 11 attacks, died from cardiac arrest on Sunday. He was nine years old.